Debbie Stabenow

Debbie Stabenow
United States Senator from Michigan
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2001 Serving with Carl Levin
Preceded by	Spencer Abraham
Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2011
Preceded by	Blanche Lincoln
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 8th district
In office January 3, 1997 – January 3, 2001
Preceded by	Dick Chrysler
Succeeded by	Mike Rogers
Member of the Michigan Senate
In office 1991–1994
Member of the Michigan House of Representatives
In office 1979–1990
Member of the Ingham County Board of Commissioners
In office 1975–1978
Personal details
Born	Deborah Ann Greer (1950-04-29) April 29, 1950 Gladwin, Michigan
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Dennis Stabenow (until 1990) Tom Athans (2003-2010)
Children	Michelle Stabenow Todd Stabenow Gina Athans (stepdaughter)
Residence	Lansing, Michigan
Alma mater	Michigan State University (B.A., M.S.W.)
Profession	Social worker
Website	Senator Debbie Stabenow

Deborah Ann "Debbie" Greer Stabenow (born April 29, 1950) is the junior United States Senator from Michigan and a member of the Democratic Party. Before her election to the U.S. Senate, she was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Michigan's 8th congressional district from 1997 to 2001. She previously served as a member of the Ingham County Board of Commissioners, Michigan House of Representatives, and Michigan Senate.

Stabenow defeated first-term Republican incumbent Spencer Abraham in the 2000 U.S. Senate election, becoming the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Michigan. She and Maria Cantwell were the first women to defeat incumbent Senators in a general election.

Stabenow currently serves as Chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Her current Senate term ends in January 2013, with an election for the seat being held in November 2012.

Early life, education, and early career

Stabenow was born in Gladwin, Michigan, the daugther of Anna Merle (née Hallmark) and Robert Lee Greer. She grew up in Clare, Michigan, where her father and grandfather owned an auto dealership. She graduated from Clare High School. She received a B.A. from Michigan State University in 1972 and a M.S.W. magna cum laude from Michigan State University in 1975.

While in graduate school, Stabenow won her first election, to the Ingham County Board of Commissioners, a position in which she served from 1975 to 1978. She has also worked as a social worker, and a leadership training consultant.

Early political career

State legislature

She served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 1979 to 1990, where she became the first woman to preside over the House. She also served in the Michigan Senate from 1991 to 1994. In 1994, she made an unsuccessful primary run for Governor of Michigan, after which she was chosen as nominee Congressman Howard Wolpe's running mate, but lost to the incumbent ticket of John Engler and Connie Binsfeld.

Stabenow was a leader in the passage of one of the first laws in the U.S. that required all Michigan children to ride in car seats until age five. She authored a domestic violence law which increased criminal penalties for those committing domestic violence offences. Republican members of the State legislature nicknamed her "D-Stabs" around this time.

In the Michigan Senate, Stabenow was a leader in the passage of bills including Michigan's property tax cuts and school funding reform, small business reforms, and legislation to protect families and children in the state.

U.S. House of Representatives

She was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1996 from Michigan's 8th congressional district and served two terms. She did not seek reelection to the House of Representatives in 2000, but was elected to the U.S. Senate. Stabenow was considered the underdog for much of the Senate race, but rallied in the final weeks of the campaign to unseat Spencer Abraham by a narrow margin.

U.S. Senate

Stabenow speaks during the second day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.

Elections

2006

Main article: Michigan United States Senate election, 2006

Stabenow faced her first re-election in the 2006 election against Michael Bouchard, the Oakland County sheriff and former state Senate majority leader. Stabenow received 57 percent of the vote while Bouchard received 41 percent.

2012

Main article: United States Senate election in Michigan, 2012

Stabenow has no known opposition in the Democratic primary, but faces several possible serious Republican opponents, including Scotty Boman, a Libertarian activist Clark Durant, co-founder of the Cornerstone Schools and Pete Hoekstra, former U.S. representative

Tenure

Before her current committee assignments, Senator Stabenow also served on the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and the Special Committee on Aging.

Stabenow is only the second person from Michigan to have served in both houses of the Michigan State Legislature and in both houses of the United States Congress. The first was Thomas W. Ferry. Stabenow is also the first person to have served as a Michigan state legislator to be popularly elected to the U.S. Senate (until enactment of the Seventeenth amendment to the United States Constitution in 1913, U.S. Senators were selected by the state legislature). No former Michigan state legislator had served in the U.S. Senate since 1894, when Francis B. Stockbridge died.

During the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, Stabenow was the first Senator to author legislation that would waive all transportation fees to Americans trapped in Lebanon, so that their repatriation back to America would not cost them.

Stabenow became the third-ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate on November 16, 2004, when she was elected by her colleagues to be secretary of the Democratic caucus. As caucus secretary, she assisted Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to set the Democrats' agenda and priorities. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) was elected Minority Whip, the Democrats' second-ranking spot. In November 2006, Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that Stabenow would leave the caucus secretary position to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton as chair of the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, charged with "engag[ing] Democratic Senators and community leaders across the country in an active dialogue".

Following the withdrawal of Tom Daschle as President Barack Obama's nominee as United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, the National Organization for Women endorsed Stabenow for the position and urged the president to appoint Stabenow, saying, "Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) has long focused on health care as a priority, and with her background as a social worker she is well positioned to take the helm of this agency that is so critical to women and families."

Stabenow became the chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee in 2011, following the defeat of chairwoman Blanche Lincoln.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
  • Subcommittee on Rural Revitalization, Conservation, Forestry and Credit (Chair)
  • Subcommittee on Energy, Science and Technology
  • Subcommittee on Hunger, Nutrition and Family Farms
• Committee on the Budget
• Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
  • Subcommittee on Energy
  • Subcommittee on National Parks
  • Subcommittee on Water and Power (Chair)
• Committee on Finance
  • Subcommittee on Health Care
  • Subcommittee on International Trade and Global Competitiveness
  • Subcommittee on Taxation, IRS Oversight, and Long-Term Growth
• United States Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee (Chair)

Political positions

Fairness doctrine

Stabenow has expressed support in regulating talk radio via a measure like the Fairness doctrine. On February 5, 2009, she stated "I think it’s absolutely time to pass a standard. Now, whether it’s called the Fairness Standard, whether it’s called something else — I absolutely think it’s time to be bringing accountability to the airwaves."

Her support for these measures has been met with criticism about a conflict of interest, given that the primary target is conservative talk radio and that her former husband, Tom Athans, has been an executive at a number of liberal progressive talk radio networks.

Drilling in the Great Lakes

She authored the first law to ban drilling in the Great Lakes.

On August 31, 2006, Stabenow, along with Senator Carl Levin and Rep. John Dingell, announced an agreement that would completely cease Ontario's dumping of solid waste in Michigan within four years. This issue has been an issue in Michigan for the past several years. Previously in the Senate, Stabenow wrote legislation intended to reduce the dumping of Canadian trash into Michigan by requiring machines to search trash being dumped across the border. In July 2006, the Senate unanimously passed a law sponsored by Stabenow requiring the payment of $420 inspection fee for every truckload of Canadian trash being brought into Michigan.

Global warming

On August 10, 2009, Stabenow was reported by The Detroit News as saying "Global warming creates volatility. I feel it when I'm flying. The storms are more volatile. We are paying the price in more hurricanes and tornadoes." However, she has opposed regulation of greenhouse gases, enhanced fuel efficiency standards in California, and greenhouse gas emission reporting standards.

SGR mechanism

Senator Stabenow has introduced a bill to end the SGR mechanism. In physician payment mechanisms, SGR refers to the "sustainable growth rate", used to calculate physician fees under Medicare, where theoretically, these fees would be reduced every year to compensate for an increase in Medicare spending overall. Medical organizations complain of being the only profession in the USA to live under government imposed price controls, controls which in actuality are not enforced. Because most often the US Congress responds to physician organization appeals, last-minute supplementary spending is approved (increasing the actual expenditures) so that no fee reduction occurs. A 21% cut would be due in January 2010.

Health care reform

Stabenow supported President Barack Obama's health reform legislation; she voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in December 2009, and she voted for the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.

Defense

Stabenow voted in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 in December 2011, which included highly controversial provisions drafted by Senators Carl Levin and John McCain in closed session, that allows for the indefinite military detention of American citizens who are deemed potential terrorists and enemies of the state without trial, challenging the general judicial status of "innocent until proven guilty."

Environment

In March 2011, the Think Progress website criticized Stabenow for joining “the pro-polluter frenzy sweeping the U.S. Senate, introducing legislation to permanently cripple Clean Air Act rules on global warming pollution. The legislation in question was the SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2011 (S.493), which, according to Think Progress, was “being used as a vehicle for senators who wish to prevent regulation of greenhouse pollution from oil refineries, coal-fired power plants, heavy industry, and other major emitters. Stabenow has added her amendment to three others intended to hamstring the Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of carbon polluters.”

Criticism

In 2009, Stabenow said, “I have always said that a strong, national fuel-economy standard is what our country needs, not a confusing patch work of different state standards. I am pleased that the Obama administration heeded my call and developed a national standard for our automakers to follow — a clear standard that will help reduce our dependence on foreign oil." However, an article from The Washington Independent states that her voting record "tells a different tale." In 2002, she voted against "a proposal that would have forced automakers to create vehicles with fleetwide averages of 40 miles-per-gallon by 2015 — 'a strong, national fuel economy standard'." Also, in June 2007, she voted against a bill that would mandate "fleet-wide averages of 35 mpg by 2020."

Personal life

Stabenow was first married to Dennis Stabenow; the couple divorced in 1990. They have two children, Michelle and Todd.

In 2003, Stabenow married Tom Athans, now co-founder of Democracy Radio and former executive vice president of Air America. By this marriage, she has a stepdaughter, Gina. Stabenow and Athans divorced on May 28, 2010, approximately two years after Athans was detained in Troy, Michigan, as part of a prostitution sting.

Stabenow belongs to the Grace United Methodist Church.

Electoral history

Michigan U.S. Senate Election 2000

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Debbie Stabenow	2,061,952	49.5	+6.7
	Republican	Spencer Abraham (Incumbent)	1,994,693	47.9

Michigan U.S. Senate Election 2006

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Debbie Stabenow (Incumbent)	2,151,278	56.9	+7.4
	Republican	Michael Bouchard	1,559,597	41.3

External links

• United States Senator Debbie Stabenow official U.S. Senate site
• Stabenow for Senate official campaign site
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Profile at SourceWatch
• Michigan Liberal's Junior Senator section